Honor-Based Violence

This book on violence to women, including forced marriage and female genital mutilation, is based on joint authorship by the forensic psychologist Anton Roberts, chair of Policing and Criminal Justice, Western Sydney University (famous for his research on stalking behaviour), detective chief superintendent Gerry Campbell, and detective chief inspector Glen Lloyd, both from the London Metropolitan Police Service with more than two decades of employment. It is a publication preoccupied with the use of explanatory models and, alas, all too frequent surplus statements including the following: ‘It is important to note... that honor based violence-related offenses provide the investigator with many complexities and challenges’ (p. 39); ‘Clearly, where there is a crime in progress, there will be a need to affect immediate emergency response that will involve law enforcement attendance at the scene’ (p. 41); ‘The location of the victim is an important consideration in determining all initial investigative decisions’ (p. 42); ‘With any crime there is a need to establish what happened, to whom, how, and why.’ (p. 59) Who would have thought?!